Kannawa Onsen

A 30-minute bus ride up the mountain from downtown Beppu, this hot spring resort is representative of Beppu's eight hot springs. The majority of Beppu's hot springs are concentrated in the Kannawa area, and the view of the hot spring town with the steam rising from the hot springs has been selected as an important cultural landscape as "Beppu's Hot Springs and Hot Spring Landscape. It is also the base for the "Jigoku Meguri (Hell Tour)," a popular sightseeing tour of Beppu.

The history of Kannawa Onsen dates back to the Kamakura period (1185-1333) when Ippen Shonin opened a "steam bath" using hot spring steam, which was feared as a "hell.
A statue of "Ippen Yukake Shonin" stands at the "Mushiyu Plaza," the site of the Mushiyu, which was once a hot spring. Since the opening of the hot spring, it has developed as a therapeutic bathhouse. Even today, when the area has become one of Oita's most popular tourist destinations, self-catering inns for long-term.

There are nine public bathhouses centered on the main street, "Ideyu-zaka," and at "Kannawa Mushi-yu," visitors can experience a Japanese-style sauna with a bed of medicinal herbs Seki-sho, which was the origin of Kannawa Onsen.

Hot spring heat is also used for food, and "Jigoku-Mushi," or steaming vegetables, meat, fish, and other ingredients in hot spring steam, is a specialty of Kannawa Onsen. Initially used by hot-spring healers to cook for themselves, it has recently gained attention as a local delicacy, and anyone can try it at" Hell steaming workshop KANNAWA.